Summer Musings and Things I Have Learned This Summer

Several of my fellow county librarians were able to attend the 2018 Google Summit.  They have collected many ideas, tidbits, and app information that they are sharing with those of us who were unable to get a seat at the summit.

Some of the apps they mentioned are Flipgrid and ScreenCastify.  They also heard that Shorten URL to get QR codes will be discontinued soon from Google.  Not sure what will replace it.  One person heard that Bit.ly is also going away.  I hope not!

Four of us attended the Lincoln County-Fayetteville Books and Bytes workshop on June 5, 2018.  The keynote speaker, Dr. Jeanne Gilliam Fain, from Lipscomb University, hit the highlights of the ALA Notable Books.  Several of the books sound like something that would go great in our ELA and SS TN standards.

One session covered https://edpuzzle.com/    The neatest thing about this is you can grab YouTube videos and trim/edit them for classroom use.  Thus get around YouTube inappropriate advertisements and firewall issues that many school districts have accessing YouTube.  You can build in questions to assess students during a video, too, and it grades it for you.  There is a free Chrome extension called edit edpuzzle to use to edit the videos.  You can also incorporate TED talks, Vimeo, and CC videos.  Sounds like something I will be trying in the 2018-2019 school year.

Another session was taught be a very knowledgable and great Technology Instructional Coach from Williamson County, TN.  She presented different ways to edit and use Google Drawing in classrooms and libraries.  Words cannot describe the great the presentation and information.  She provided ready-made templates and collaboration projects with suggested curriculum connections!  Check her out on Twitter at @BevNOzburn.  

At the elementary round table session, one idea on creating and using Reader's Theater in the library is to have students write their own Reader's Theater about a certain topic.  One librarian had the students write a Reader's Theater on Aesop's Fables.  An alternative to Accelerated Reader might be https://www.whooosreading.org/   Several Tennessee school districts are losing access to Accelerated Reader due to budget cuts and are struggling to find a free or lower cost alternative.  https://classroomscreen.com/ is a great tool to use for timers, etc., to display on a projector.  We were encouraged to look into the free trial for a younger Bill Nye the Science Guy type of science videos at https://www.generationgenius.com/  

The last session I attended discussed Genrefying an elementary library.  Lots of neat ideas.  The presenter started with the nonfiction.  She created a color code for the different genres.  She purchased see-through color labels to go over her existing spine lables instead of printing all new spine labels.  Acknowledging that the books might be somewhat disordered within the section but all of a genre are together was a big point she made to us.  

Part of my summer resolution is to clean up my files.  I primarily use Dropbox.  Google Drive is what my district provides with my Google Classroom account but I have problems having what I need where and when I need it.  At the same time, I have multiple copies of quite a few files as well as my personal photos.  So, I am spending a few days getting all of that cleaned up.  I chose to use Ashisoft's Duplicate File Finder found here.  

I have plans to go through Google Suite certification training on my own this summer!  Hopefully I will be able to post how that went!

Enjoy your summer!  August 1 will roll around before you know it!  Our district gets out Memorial Day weekend and students start back on August 1.

Bulletin boards and things

I never seem to get caught up and my youngest recently said, "You know, I think you work too much."  That is a reflection on how hard I find it to say "no" to people.

But, I do all of it for the kiddos.

In March, we are doing a March Madness version for TDS.  I am calling it the TDS Tournament of Books.  I pulled reports from my library circulation software to give me the initial 32 top picture books and the 32 top chapter books based on number of times checked out this school year.  I included graphic novels in the picture books.  Then I drew the brackets and printed book cover images, and began the process of creating QR codes and ballots in Google Forms.  The students are loving the idea of voting and seeing which book is going up against another, etc.  I originally got the idea from http://brownbagteacher.com/book-madness-march-book-display/  Here is a picture of what I ended up posting on our bulletin board.  

In February, I started two after-school book clubs.  I have 27 1st and 2nd graders signed up to stay about every 2 weeks on Monday until 4:00.  I have 20 3rd through 5th graders signed up to stay about every 3 weeks.  We have a snack (popcorn mostly) and have book talks/reviews of the books, and they choose new books. 

The first 2 times the 1st and 2nd grade group stayed, we chose from my Caldecott collection.  The 3rd time, they were able to choose from sets of early chapter books or popular titles such as Stink by Megan McDonald.  Early chapter books includes the first A to Z Mysteries book The Absent Author by Ron Roy, the first Magic Tree House book Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne, the second Magic Tree House book The Knight at Dawn also by Mary Pope Osborne, Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown, etc.  I provided a cute little form that asks questions like "If you wanted to convince someone to read this book without giving away the ending, what would you say?" "What is one thing you really liked about this book?" I also included a thought bubble and asked the students to draw how they would picture the main character(s).

The older group started out choosing a Newbery award book.  They did a brief review of the book and a few students did a brief book talk.  The second time they met, they got to either choose a stand alone Newbery book or a book from sets I provided.  I have students reading A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, etc.

I wanted this to be an opportunity for the stronger readers in each grade level to be able to get together with like-minded students to discuss and be excited about books. So far, they love it. It is a noisy, exciting time in the library on the Monday afternoons of book club!

4th and 5th graders read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle then we took a trip to the local movie theater to watch it. 5th graders are answering questions about book versus movie, etc., in the library. It is interesting to hear the discussions.

Students have been working toward earning the end of the year celebration in AR and earning the honor of going to Readapalooza. It seems every time I turn around, someone is handing me a reading log!

The book fair is right before spring break on March 22 and March 23.

4th graders are doing a research project in conjunction with the classroom social studies teacher. They have a person that is listed in the 4th grade social studies standards. I am providing a variety of templates and options for reporting their information through Google Classroom. They are very excited about using these templates. Trying to teach them to cite their sources, even a picture they find on Wikipedia or just from a Google search is quite challenging.

We have the ongoing myOn county-wide challenge that continues as well as SmartyAnts and Achieve3000 reading going on.

Through June 30, 2018, students have access to Tumblebooks Premium free. Mackin Tumblebooks Account. Students need to search for Discovery School, Dickson Tennessee then type in       thediscoveryes        as the username and       discovery       as the password to access these free books. Only until June 30, 2018.

Life is certainly not dull in the TDS Library!

Until next time, enjoy a good book!